Dear 4A Families,
Welcome Back.
I hope you all had a wonderful Christmas holiday and that you are ready to jump into the New Year and decade 2020! We are very happy to welcome back Nora Paulus on Monday as well!
On Monday we will take time to share some favorite holiday events and we will review our classroom and school procedures and rules all week.
Reviewing routines and procedures will help us start the year off right. This week, we will be focusing on the habit of Managing Impulsivity. This habit includes the following: taking time to consider options; thinking before speaking or acting; remaining calm when stressed or challenged; being thoughtful and considerate of others; proceeding carefully. This is a fancy way of working on self-control, and it is a great time to revisit some classroom expectations as we begin a new year!
Catholic Schools Week this year is from January 26th to February 1st. On Tuesday the 28th the 4th graders will be delivering certificates of appreciation to many of the local businesses that support our school. This has been a 4th grade tradition for almost 20 years! You have probably seen certificates hanging some of the businesses you visit. We need parent volunteers to drive/chaperone small groups of students as they deliver certificates on this day. Mark your calendars! Permission slips will be coming home with your children on Monday Please have these turned in by this Friday the 10th, and please consider helping out on this special service project. We really need you! Thank you so much.
Religion: This week we will be creating posters of the Corporal Works of Mercy. The students will be working in groups to produce a poster that describes and illustrates one the the Seven Works of Mercy. Each group will then share their poster with the class, while their classmates take notes. In Second Step we will be focusing on understanding different perspectives and emotion management. These lessons will tie in perfectly with our habit of self-control. On Friday the students will come home with a study sheet for an upcoming Liturgical Year test (test will be January 22nd).
Reading/Language Arts:
Be sure to check your child’s filer this week for corrected Charlotte’s Web final tests that the students completed before the break. Grade sheets for the Quote Posters will also be in your child’s filer this week, along with the grade sheet for the Reindeer Writing. We are moving back into our anthology this week as we begin a mini unit on Martin Luther King, Jr. and the Civil Rights Movement. This unit will lead into our larger biography unit. Stayed tuned for more!
Our language arts activities will focus on the parts of speech: nouns, verbs, adjectives, adverbs as well as subject/verb agreement. This will be an ongoing review all month that will tie into our writing tasks.
Spelling: Our spelling words are the months and days…proper nouns, which means they need to be capitalized! The students will also be expected to memorize, by January 17th, the Month Poem.
Math: Our new chapter will focus on the accurate computation when multiplying by a two digit number. We will use several strategies that will lead to the algorithm for this skill. We will also review skills we have learned up to this point. Starting next week we will begin flexible groupings for math. Stay tuned for more information. Look for math homework each night this week.
Social Studies: This week the students will be introduced to the Lewis and Clark Expedition. We will begin with the Louisiana Purchase and some background information on Lewis, Clark and President Jefferson. Students should be reviewing for the combination NE/SE/Midwest test on January 16th.
Science: Before the break, students designed and tested sails. They made predictions about which properties would help the sails sail the farthest. Emme in 4A created a successful sail that was a triangle shape and made out of aluminum foil. It sailed six feet with just two gusts of wind! In 4B, Emalyn and George’s sails traveled 54 inches! George’s sail was a rectangle made out of tissue paper, and Emalyn’s was a triangle made out of foam. This week, we will begin our final lessons on building wind mills!
That is about all for this first week back. We have lots of great learning ahead and I am excited to see the students and jump into the New Year!
Happy Epiphany!
